How To Make Shredded Coconut From Scratch?

HOMEMADE COCONUT SHREDS

Those Homemade Coconut Shreds From Scratch will change your way in Keto or Low Carb kitchen pantry. Made from desiccated shredded coconut, perfect for gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free baking and excellent for diabetics.

How to use unsweetened coconut shreds?

Use them to Make Coconut Milk first, add them to our Low Carb Granolas, sprinkle on top of Keto Coconut Ice Cream or roast them to prepare Sugar-Free Keto Sprinkles to use on any occasion. The uses are endless and you will be just happy to learn how to make shredded coconut.

Why this Shredded Coconut Recipe works?

I have written a lot of information about coconuts and its benefits in our post on How to make Coconut Milk if you are interested to have a look.

gives you instant fresh coconuts to use
adds the flavor you will not get from a store-bought packages
has multi-uses in your Keto kitchen pantry
is extremely delicious
adds into your healthy lifestyle
make it and store it for a very long time
and so I can go on and on ….

Fresh coconuts with shredded on a white tray with flower in the background

Once you buy few whole coconuts, you can make so many homemade goodies. And those shredded coconuts are just one part of it.

This time, let us go directly into a full instructions on how to make them.

How to make Shredded Coconut from scratch?

Step by step instructions:

First Step: Break the coconut

Using heavy meat tenderizer or hammer, hit heavy through the middle of coconut, turning it slowly until the coconut starts cracking. Drain the water and crack open the shells.

Second Step: Cut the meat

With a strong and sharp knife, cut through the coconut meat vertically and diagonally to help to remove the meat from the coconut shelves. If the coconut is dry, it goes much easier. But if you have a really fresh coconut, some labor might be needed. 🙂

Third Step: Peel the meat

With the help of strong knife try to release the coconut meat first from the side of the cups, pulling outwards. The most difficult is the first part and then the rest is pretty easy to pull. Have a look at the video for better understanding.

Removing coconut meat out of coconut shells

Fourth Step: Clean the skin

With a vegetable peeler, clean the brown layer of the coconut meat thoroughly all over. I would suggest washing the coconut pieces for you to get the really white coconut shreds.

Fifth Step: Shred the coconut

With a mandolin or a hand grater, grate the coconut into shreds. Depending on the size of the shreds you want, use the specific grater. I normally grate it on the bigger grater, if I want to use the coconut shreds for our Homemade Sugar-Free Keto Sprinkles. If smaller, great for making milk or using it for

If you would like to make a huge batch of coconut shreds, from more coconuts, you can grat the met in a magic bullet, Vitamix or a food processor for easier handling.

Sixth Step: Bake

Before you bake them, you can use the shreds for making a Coconut Milk as I mentioned above. This will make the shreds a bit more moist.

But not a problem at all. Just let it in the oven for a bit longer. At the end you are drying the shreds and not roasting them. Set the oven at the low temperature and bake slowly.

Make sure to check at least twice the oven and mix them, since the top of the shreds get dried faster, but under you would still get shreds moist.

Frequently asked questions and answers:

Is shredded coconut Keto-friendly?

Fully. It is one of the best and the most popular ingredient to prepare Keto or Low Car meals. Use them for cooking, baking, making coconut milk out of them, Ice Creams, Keto cupcakes, healthy birthday cakes, mix with breakfast cereals. The imaginations are endless.

Can you dehydrate homemade coconut shreds?

You can certainly use the dehydrator for drying the coconut shreds. In the end, you are kind of drying them on a very low temperature in the oven as well. So this will be very similar.
You will still have to either changed the plates from time to time or just remix them, so they all get perfectly dry.
And the positive side? You do not have to be afraid of burning them. Which happens from time to time in the oven. 🙂

How to rehydrate coconut shreds?

You can use two ways to rehydrate shredded coconut.
1. Soak them in the water for half an hour to an hour and subsequently layer them on a fresh clean towel for the remaining water to dry.
2. Use a steamer to steam the coconut shreds to retain its moisture and bring them back to life as if you have just made them fresh.

How to make coconut shreds sweet?

Before placing them into the oven, you can sweeten them with your favorite sweetener. I like to sweeten the water in a small bowl, to which I would then soak the coconut shreds. Make sure you mix them properly. That way, all of the shreds will get an equal amount of sweetness.
After fully mixed, place the shreds onto the muslin cloth and squeeze remaining water. This will save you lots of time while baking.

How to store shredded coconut?

Make sure the shreds are completely dry and crispy. Store them in an airtight container. They should last for 5-6 month.
I normally keep them in a Mason Jar and they stay on our kitchen counter. That way, they can be used all the time.
You can also place them into the refrigerator or a freezer.

How do you dry coconut naturally?

If it is summer and the weather outside is pretty dry, you can leave them dry naturally. Place the shredded coconuts on a newspaper and cover with some mesh to keep the bugs away. Place it in your garden in a shady area.
Do not place them on the direct sun, otherwise, they will become brown.
If you have winter right now, I like to keep them on a heater.
Just cover the baking sheet with parchment paper and let them dry naturally. A baking tray will make sure, the dryness gets evenly spread. Here make sure the heater is not switched on full blast. Otherwise, your coconut shreds will burn.

Can shredded coconut be frozen?

This is one of the options and by freezing them, you will retain the freshness for much longer.
Here I have to mention, that once taking the out of the freezer for the future use, they will become soggy. But placing them back into the oven for a while will make them crispy again.

Can shredded coconut go bad?

They certainly can. Especially if you have not dried the coconut shreds fully. Check that before storing them.
Also make smaller batches.
For that reason, I always make sure to dry only amount, I am going to use in next months or so.

Do not forget to stay in touch with us on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram. Join our Newsletter for all the great new recipes. Have some questions? We do have a lovely FB Group you can join, where we discuss everything around Keto & Low Carb Living, help each other out and share all of the ideas and recipes.

Getting directly to the Recipe which you can also print out for your convenience.

Thank you for giving us 5 stars 🙂

Yield: 2 cups

Homemade Coconut Shreds

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 Desiccated Coconuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 70C (150F) With a hammer, break the coconut until cracks.
Drain the water into a separate bowl and open the coconut
With a hard and sharp knife cut the meat diagonally and vertically and take out the inside meat out of the coconut shell
With a vegetable peeler peel the outer dark skin from the meat. Wash the pieces to get the nice and white shreds.
Using a mandolin or a hand grater to shred the coconut pieces
Spread on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake for approximately 10-15 minutes. Make sure you mix the shreds in between to get all of the moisture out and dry them fully.
Switch off the oven and let them cool inside to achieve better crunchiness.
Store in an air-tight container and enjoy.

Notes

For full instruction read the post above with step by step images and check our video for better understanding

Coconut Recipes

Keto and Low Carb Recipes using coconut oil, milk, shreds and everything from coconut.

Homemade Coconut Shreds

Chia Coco

Chia coco is a quick alternative for breakfast or a quick snack to fill you up. In 5 minutes everything is done and you can enjoy it.

Homemade Easy Keto Gnocchi

Keto Gnocchi Di Patate with its real Pillowy Pasta Texture with “Melt in your Mouth” Potato like Flavor are unrecognizable Pasta, Dumplings or Gnocchi replacement in Low Carb Lifestyle. Fully Gluten-Free, made without real Potatoes, our Homemade Gnocchi will surprise you with its real feel.

Keto Fat Bomb Cream Cheese Recipe Low Carb

Keto Fat Bomb Cream Cheese Recipe Low Carb is a perfect addition to the LCHF way of eating. Those deliciously smooth, rich and flavorful tasty Fat Bombs are a must if you need to up your fat intake or have a sweet craving in our lifestyle.

How to make Coconut Milk

The easiest and cheapest way on how to make your own homemade coconut milk from desiccated coconuts. You will be left with additional coconut shreds you can use for breakfast, plus a beautiful coconut cups to serve food into.

Homemade Sugar Free Keto Sprinkles

Those Homemade Sugar Free Keto Sprinkles are best invention in the whole Univers. Use them forever and on any party occasions.

Keto Coconut Ice Cream

Easy to make, this Sugar-free Keto Coconut Ice Cream recipe is not only dairy free and egg free but also a perfect creamy no churn low carb ice cream with homemade Coconut milk.

Keto Desserts Book

65 mouth-watering Keto dessert recipes in a digital, interactive cookbook that’s sent out via email immediately. All recipes are Keto, low-carb, sugar-free, Paleo, dairy-free and low-inflammatory using gluten-free ingredients. Easy-to-make with easy-to-find ingredients. Full nutritional info is provided for every recipe. A bonus easy-to-print version is also included.

Low Carb Granola Keto Crunchy Gluten-Free and Sugar-Free

Thursday 21st of January 2021

[…] Shredded Dry Coconut […]

Winter Weekday Special Dal by Umami from Scratch • Recipes that Really Work

Tuesday 5th of January 2021

[…] in the frozen food section of Asian grocery stores. If you can’t find it, you can either make your own with a fresh coconut, or substitute sliced […]

Homemade Sugar Free Keto Sprinkles - Low Carb No Carb

Friday 13th of November 2020

[…] can also made your own Homemade Coconut Shreds from Scratch if you are […]

Amel

Saturday 14th of December 2019

hi , how long do you bake it, and where do you reserve it and for how long?

Zuzana

Dear Amel, 10-15 minutes and then let it cool in the oven until fully dry. I have them stored in the mason jar for the last 2 months and they are still perfect.

heatehr

Monday 26th of August 2019

I had no idea you could do this so easily! Thanks for teaching me a new keto kitchen skill!

He He, We all learn something new every day

How To Make Shredded Coconut From Scratch?

HOMEMADE COCONUT SHREDS

How to use unsweetened coconut shreds?

Why this Shredded Coconut Recipe works?